PETALING JAYA: It will be one of the greatest comeback stories Spanish women singles shuttler Carolina Marin (pic) wins her second gold at the Paris Olympic Games.
Marin etched her name in the history books by capturing the first ever gold in badminton for Spain in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics but failed to defend it in the 2021 Tokyo Games after sustaining what was a second serious knee injury just a month before the competition.
The 31-year-old has fought back from the injury and regained some of her best form in the past two years and is now ready to have another go when the badminton competition starts this Saturday at the Adidas Arena in Porte de la Chapelle.
“For sure I will be ready for Paris. This is my main goal for the last three years after I got my second knee injury,” said Marin in an interview with the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“This is what I want to keep in mind every day, even when sometimes it’s too hard for practice; this is what I want to keep maintaining.
“I don’t want to think about the injury. This is how sport is. You have to push yourself to the limit.
“I know it will be hard, but I’m ready. I’m looking forward to it and I want to push my body and my mind hard,” added the pumped-up Marin.
Marin has been in stellar form this year along with China’s reigning Olympic gold medallist Chen Yufei and South Korea’s world champion An Se-young and all three are among the favourites for the gold in Paris.
The Spaniard was unstoppable when she captured the back-to-back All-England, Swiss Open and European Championship titles in March and April.
In her last outing before the Olympics, Marin reached the semi-finals of the Indonesian Open before going down fighting in three games to Yufei.
In the Paris showpiece, the three-time world champion could clash against the Chinese ace in the same stage again.
Before that, Marin will likely meet Zhang Beiwen of the United States in the round of 16.
A win could see the former face either Japan’s Aya Ohori or Singapore’s Yeo Jia Min in the last eight.
Meanwhile, Yufei could face the winner of the match between world No. 8 teammate He Bingjiao and India’s 2019 world champion P. V. Sindhu in the quarter-finals.
